Day v. City of Fontana

90 Cal. Rptr. 2d 308, 76 Cal. App. 4th 293
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 16, 2000
DocketE022011
StatusPublished

This text of 90 Cal. Rptr. 2d 308 (Day v. City of Fontana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Day v. City of Fontana, 90 Cal. Rptr. 2d 308, 76 Cal. App. 4th 293 (Cal. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

90 Cal.Rptr.2d 308 (1999)
76 Cal.App.4th 293

Russell Glen DAY, Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
CITY OF FONTANA et al., Defendants and Respondents.

No. E022011.

Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division Two.

November 18, 1999.
Review Granted February 16, 2000.

*309 Law Offices of Wayne McClean, Evan D. Marshall and Wayne McClean, Los Angeles; Law Offices of J. Russell Brown, Jr., and Kevin Campbell, Los Angeles, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland LLP, Kent L. Richland, Beverly Hills, and Dana F. Gardner, Los Angeles; Rinos, Shephard & Martin, LLP and Dimitrios C. Rinos, Santa Ana, for Defendant and Respondent City of Fontana.

Alan K. Marks, County Counsel, and Dennis M. Wagner, Deputy County Counsel, for Defendant and Respondent County of San Bernardino.

OPINION

HOLLENHORST, J.

A jury awarded plaintiff Russell Day nearly half a million dollars for his economic damages sustained in an automobile versus motorcycle accident. In this appeal, plaintiff does not contest his economic damages award. Rather, he contends the trial court erred in applying Proposition 213 retroactively to his failure to have liability insurance on his motorcycle, thus barring him from recovering any noneconomic damages against the County of San Bernardino ("County") and the City of Fontana ("City"). We affirm.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The facts of this case are relatively simple and undisputed. On September 1, 1991, plaintiff was injured when his motorcycle was struck by a car driven by defendant William Honda. Plaintiff filed a complaint against William Honda, Irving Schwartz (the owner of the property adjacent to the intersection where the accident took place), the County and the City. As against the public entity defendants, plaintiff alleged causes of action for dangerous condition of public property and nuisance.

During discovery, defendants learned that plaintiff did not have liability insurance on his motorcycle as required by state law. On November 5, 1996, the voters passed Proposition 213, which prohibits uninsured drivers from collecting noneconomic damages, such as for pain, suffering and physical impairment, in any action arising out of the operation or use of a motor vehicle. (See Civ.Code, § 3333.4.) The County thereafter filed a motion in limine, joined by the City, to exclude any damages for pain and suffering. The trial court granted the motion on May 13, 1997.

On June 18, 1997, a jury found that plaintiff had suffered $454,574.21 in economic damages and allocated responsibility for those damages between William Honda, the County and the City. The trial court entered judgment on the basis of that verdict on November 19,1997.

II.

CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PROPOSITION 213

Plaintiff concedes Yoshioka v. Superior Court (1997) 58 Cal.App.4th 972, 68 Cal. Rptr.2d 553, and Quackenbush v. Superior Court (1997) 60 Cal.App.4th 454, 70 Cal. Rptr.2d 271, have rejected constitutional attacks on Proposition 213. In Yoshioka, the Second District concluded that Proposition 213 is constitutional both in its retroactive and prospective applications, and *310 specifically held that it does not violate the due process or equal protection clauses of the state or federal constitutions. The First District in Quackenbush agreed with the analysis in Yoshioka, holding that Proposition 213 is consistent with both due process and equal protection. Plaintiff claims, however, that Yoshioka and Quackenbush are "analytically flawed" and invites us to readjudicate the constitutionality of Proposition 213. We decline to revisit the issue.

However, we will address plaintiffs charge, raised during oral argument, that we did not address the penal nature of the statute, i.e., that the statute imposed a penalty for being uninsured by depriving uninsured motorists of full recovery — an issue he claims was not addressed by the Yoshioka court. We disagree with plaintiffs interpretation of Yoshioka. In our view, Yoshioka addressed the very argument advanced by plaintiff, albeit not in plaintiffs exact words.

In discussing retroactive application of Proposition 213, the Yoshioka court reasoned as follows: "Retrospective application of a statute is constitutional as long as it does not deprive a person of a substantive right without due process of law. [Citation.] Procedural due process applies only to vested rights. [Citation.] [Plaintiff] concedes that numerous courts have held that the right to recover specific types of damages is not a vested right because such rights are created by state and common law independent from the Constitution. [Citations.] Therefore, a state and its people may alter such rights. Such alteration is only forbidden when at the very least the party is deprived of every reasonable method of securing just compensation. This does not encompass instances where the plaintiff would not recover as much as he would have had the former rule continued. [Citation.]" (Yoshioka v. Superior Court, supra, 58 Cal. App.4th 972, 981-982, 68 Cal.Rptr.2d 553.)

Since there is no vested right to recover a specific type of damages, any "penalty" assertedly imposed when the electorate altered such rights did not violate due process because it was done in a manner that did not deprive plaintiff of all reasonable means of securing just compensation. "[Although [plaintiff] may not be able to recover as high a damage[ ] award as he would have prior to the initiative's passage, he still is legally entitled to some form of relief. Proposition 213 deprives [plaintiff] of a certain type of damages (noneconomic, i.e., pain and suffering), but [plaintiff] cannot claim that he is deprived of every reasonable method of securing just compensation. He is still able to obtain complete recovery for his economic damages." (Yoshioka v. Superior Court, supra, 58 Cal.App.4th 972, 982, 68 Cal. Rptr.2d 553.) As the Yoshioka court ultimately held, retroactive application of Proposition 213 is not inherently unfair inasmuch as California has long required drivers to purchase auto insurance. "Reliance upon the state of the former law is not a viable argument. Actions taken on the basis of the state of the former law should be identical to those taken in response to the new law." (Yoshioka, supra, at p. 985, 68 Cal.Rptr.2d 553 [rejecting petitioner's allegation that retroactive applications of initiatives are inherently unfair because they give no notice to those they later affect].)

We end this analysis by noting Yoshioka's commonsense statement that "uninsured motorists ... can easily avoid the penalty of not being entitled to noneconomic damages, by simply choosing alternative forms of transportation." (Yoshioka v. Superior Court, supra, 58 Cal. App.4th 972, 990, 68 Cal.Rptr.2d 553.) All said, we remain in agreement with Yoshioka and Quackenbush that Proposition 213 does not violate due process. (See also Savnik v. Hall (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 733, 739, 88 Cal.Rptr.2d 417 [same]; and Honsickle v. Superior Court (1999) 69 Cal. App.4th 756, 765, 82 Cal.Rptr.2d 36 [same].)

*311 III.

APPLICATION OF PROPOSITION 213 TO CAUSES OF ACTION FOR DANGEROUS CONDITIONS OF PUBLIC PROPERTY AND NUISANCE AS AGAINST PUBLIC ENTITIES

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Related

Hodges v. Superior Court
980 P.2d 433 (California Supreme Court, 1999)
Savnik v. Hall
88 Cal. Rptr. 2d 417 (California Court of Appeal, 1999)
Yoshioka v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County
58 Cal. App. 4th 972 (California Court of Appeal, 1997)
City of South El Monte v. Southern California Joint Powers Insurance Authority
38 Cal. App. 4th 1629 (California Court of Appeal, 1995)
Quackenbush v. Superior Court of S.F.
60 Cal. App. 4th 454 (California Court of Appeal, 1997)
Honsickle v. Superior Court
82 Cal. Rptr. 2d 36 (California Court of Appeal, 1999)

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90 Cal. Rptr. 2d 308, 76 Cal. App. 4th 293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/day-v-city-of-fontana-calctapp-2000.